The G20 Meet

In his book ‘The Gathering Storm’ Winston Churchill has chronicled how successive British governments, virtually patronized and aided Adolf Hitler lulled into complacence over Hitler’s assurance that his prime target was the Communist Soviet Union led then by Josef Stalin.

Neville Chamberlain was forced by the British Parliamentarians, more so from his party the Conservatives to “Go” when it became evident that he looked the other side while Hitler extended his domain first to Rhineland, then to Austria and then to Czechoslovakia. Even after Chamberlain announced England going to war with Germany, he was reluctant to confront Hitler and he had to go once his compromise endangering the security of the Kingdom and His Majesty’s empire extending across the continents, became evident.

But by then a lot of damage had been done, recorded Churchill and soon enough Hitler turned towards France and without much effort ran over almost entire France, facing very little resistance from the French who least expected Hitler to turn at them. It is that act of Hitler which caused alarm and outrage among the Europeans and Americans who finally decided to make peace with Stalin to fight Hitler. There is no way they could beat Hitler without reconciling to making peace with the Soviet Union first.

“Ali Awad, 14, was chopping vegetables when the first bomb struck. Adel Tormous, who would die tackling the second bomber, was sitting at a nearby coffee stand. Khodr Alaa Deen, a registered nurse, was on his way to work his night shift at the teaching hospital of the American University at Beirut, in Lebanon. All three lost their lives in a double suicide attack in Beirut on Thursday (November 12), along with 40 others, and much like the scores who died a day later in Paris, they were killed at random, in a bustling urban area, while going about their normal evening business” wrote Anne Barnard in the New York Times from Beirut on November 15. But the world simply shrugged off those killings. Why? Because the target of the Beirut attack was the Shia community of Lebanon, owing allegiance to Hezbollah, an ally of Syrian regime of Basher Al Assad, who the Western world, the US and Israel all, together with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan and the UAE want out of their way. The regressive regimes of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan and UAE created a fresh equivalent of Al Qaeda with a new name Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) mainly to counter the genuine democratic sentiment and aspirations of the enlightened Arab youth evident in the Arab spring.

The only way out to reverse that agitation and hunger for modern democracy in the Arab youth was this bogey of Islam, which the most regressive and anti-people above mentioned West Asian monarchies and Oligarchies like Turkey created with armed and financial aid from the Western powers, determined to oust Assad at any cost. Even in this G20 conference none, including our great Prime Minister Narendra Modi dare question the West, France included, why they have been arming and financing ISIS consistently for last four years.

All these years the Western powers and Israel together with the Wahabi Middle East have been nurturing the Salafi ISIS. The IS too, under the garb of fighting US Imperialism and Israel, have been killing people in Iraq and Syira and of course off and on in Lebanon as well. They haven’t fired a single bullet in the direction of Israel, exposing their bogus and fraudulent indignation over the Palestinian question.

It is also ironical that the Group of 20 nations (G20) have chosen to hold their anti-terror conference of all the places in Turkey, where Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the current Turkish President who provided free thoroughfare to the IS men, material, arms, ammunitions, transport and most of all finances to enter Syria and is to date backing them, has returned to power on the slogan of further Islamisation. The other day we had French President François Hollande admit on record having armed the IS with lethal weapons and even anti aircraft guns and missiles.

Not a tear was shed when the IS, using the Western arms struck at the Russian aeroplane full of innocent passengers which flew from Egyptian holiday resort. No one bothered to have another look when the IS targeted the citizens of Beirut.

And even our very own Prime Minister Narendra Modi, professing to be most determined to fight terror, said nothing beyond delivering a few homilies on the danger of terror to the comity of nations. What prevented the Prime Minister to point out the irony of holding an anti-terror meet in Turkey under Erdogan’s umbrella? What kind of security against terror can Erdogan guarantee?

It will be as wrong to say that IS has nothing to do with Islam as it would be to say This is Islam.” This is a Salafist interpretation of Islam which is intolerant of all dissent. That is not the view of most Muslims across the Globe, including India. For if that be the case then the IS were not targeting primarily Muslims. I hope this much common sense any intelligent person would have. Muslims of the Indian subcontinent and I am talking of the Sunnis, largely subscribe to the Sufi philosophy which is a complete anti-thesis of Wahabi, Salafi narrow sectarian view. Tell me any reference anywhere in Islam to suicide bombings and that too psyching little innocent children?